Police Chief Takes A Stand New Leader Says Job Is Good, Bad

March 15, 1990|by SONIA CSENCSITS, The Morning Call

A school day ends. Students leave. Tempers rise to the breaking point, and a fight breaks out on the school grounds. The altercation continues down a hill to an adjacent parking lot. The combatants do not see police arrive; they are engaged in a struggle of fists and words.

Policemen disengage the two young girls, and an officer leads one of the fighters to his car.

All the while, he speaks in a soothing voice. He adroitly leads the young girl to the car as she screams and swears at him. He never wavers. He maintains an air of calm authority.

It's an early morning in July. Police receive a call about a burglary in progress. An officer sees a man and orders him to halt. The man flees. The policeman follows on foot. Several times more he tells the man he is a policeman and will shoot if the man does not stop. The man does not stop. The officer shoots and wounds the suspect in the right side.

These are but two fragments in the life of one policeman -- Richard Fenstermaker, the man named Northampton police chief in December.

Fenstermaker, a 20-year policeman, says he is never really off duty.

"Once you are sworn in to uphold the laws of the commonwealth and Constitution, if you take the oath seriously, you are never off duty. You are a policeman 24 hours a day," he says.

"It is not all gloom and despair. There are good things happening in a policeman's life all the time. And that really makes me feel good.

"Someone from the community will agree to go along and testify at a hearing and trial. That reaffirms my faith in society. When someone comes forward and says, `Yes I did see it,' `Yes I will testify,' it shows people really are willing to help others."

Of the shooting he explains, "In one respect I felt I was doing the job. I owe something to the people of the community. There were 36 previous burglaries. But I really had bad feelings afterward. There was a degree of despondency.

"It is frightening to think that we, the police, are the only thing that stands between order and chaos. ... When people lose respect for us, there will be no more civilized society.

"The only thing that can bring respect to law enforcement and police is the threat of punishment for wrongdoing. When you lose that threat and a person knows he will not be put away, that is when things happen and those people commit crimes against the public.

"We need the cooperation of the people. We cannot do this alone. We need them to testify.

"It feels like a never-ending battle to get things accomplished. The system does work, but I have misgivings. I do not know where to place blame. It does not lie with the judges. ... They have guidelines to follow. If society wants to put people away, (society) must be willing to allow prisons to be built and pay more taxes to support them.

"You can only rehabilitate to a certain point. There comes a point in the criminal justice system where rehabilitation is impossible and punishment is the only way to go. That means incarceration.

"And I don't believe it should be a vacation with carpets and television sets. It should be punishment. I believe that is what our forefathers meant it to be and not what society turned it to be."

He says he is proud of a state Supreme Court decision that upheld the validity of a search warrant he secured for a drug arrest. The attorney for the defendant had appealed to the high court.

"It set a precedent in the court, and it is something I will never forget," Fenstermaker explains.

He remembers automobile accidents, especially those with fatalities. One accident that sticks out in his mind involved two fatalities.

"I can never forget that accident," he recounts. "People gathered at the scene and became agitated because we did not remove the bodies. We had to wait for the coroner.

"Then there was an accident with a young boy. Patrolman Paul Miller and I began first aid and comforted the boy. His grandfather sent me a letter thanking me for what I did, and I talked to the boy when he got better. That made me feel good.

"And once in a while someone will thank me for giving them a traffic citation."

Fenstermaker graduated from the Air Force Police Academy in November 1961.

"I have been involved in law enforcement since then," he says.

He started in Northampton in 1968, left for about 2-1/2 years and returned in 1972, continuing as a part-time borough officer. He was the Northampton drug enforcement officer.

His off-duty hours are spent relaxing outdoors.

"I like to go and get away by myself," he comments. "I like walking in the woods and the mountains and hiking. And I like working in the yard at home. I like to have a nice lawn."

An avid baseball fan, Fenstermaker compares the borough with a baseball team.

"I like to look at the community as a baseball team, with the criminal justice team as the umpire, the people the players and police the managers trying to steer them in the right direction," he says.